Roots Covenant Church: Recent Episodes
Roots Church
Roots is an intentionally multiethnic community of misfits on a mission, finding identity in Jesus. We consider ourselves “misfits” because many of us have felt like we didn’t fit in other settings—always too much or not enough. Many of us asked too many questions, or didn’t conform to cultural norms. When we look to the scriptures, however, we see Jesus taking misfits and forming them into a new people with a new passion and a new purpose. It’s in Jesus’s Kingdom where we belong; in following Jesus we find our most important identity.
Roots is a church community that gathers in the Hamline-Midway, Frogtown, and historic Rondo neighborhoods of St. Paul, MN. When we talk about “church,” we’re not talking about a building. Rather, we’re talking about a people, a community that is seeking God, learning how to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and experiencing new life in Christ. We have been meeting since 2014. We would love for you to join us for a worship gathering or small group some time!
In this message, Pastor T. C. kicks off an Eastertide teaching series on the book of First Peter.
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the episode in Jesus’s story when he is warned that Herod wants to kill him but he is defiant, unflappable. But it’s what Jesus says next that has echoed through history. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and longs to gather its children to himself like a mother hen.
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the problematic concept of “missions” and reframes it as God’s dream for the world to restore Shalom. God tells Israel to “seek the peace of the city” in Jeremiah 29—and that city was Babylon. What if the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was never about “conversion” but about declaring and demonstrating the Kingdom of God? What the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was always about sharing God’s peace?
In this message, Pastor Osheta teaches on what Moravian history has to teach us about unity. We are united in our picture of God in Christ; united in our commitments to remembering our journey of faith, to being curious about the ‘other’, and to coming together around the Lord’s Table.
In this message, Pastor Osheta preaches on the “Journey of Faith” from the story of Jesus calming the storm.
In this message, Pastor T. C. homes in on another area of overlap between Roots and the Moravian Church: a Jesus-centered reading of the Bible.
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. teaches on the kind of community God is forming in Christ—a community of misfits. Jesus didn’t gather the best and brightest, he gathered the overlooked and underestimated. Jesus did this to demonstrate the nearness of God’s Kingdom to all, not just the religious elite. In fact, God’s election has always been this way. Israel was not chosen because it was great in size or particularly devout. No, God’s choosing is always for God’s glory, not ours. That’s why Pastor T. C. translates First Corinthians 1.26–31 this way:
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish ones of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak ones of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly ones of this world and the despised ones—and the ones who are nobodies—to shut the mouths of the ones who think they’re somebodies, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ ”
The Moravian tradition includes a theological innovation that facilitates the unity with diversity that Christ’s misfit community requires. For centuries, Moravians have been guided by these words:
In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.”
In this message, Pastor T. C. outlines what are “essentials” for Moravians, and what are not. This is vitally important for cultivating a community that prioritizes unity with diversity.
Lament is a neglected aspect of Christian worship in the Western world and perhaps especially in the United States. In troubled times when it’s clear the world is not as it should be—God’s dream of shalom is disrupted—God’s people cry out to God on behalf of the vulnerable, the abused, the marginalized. Lament is an important aspect of the Lenten season, since we are invited to reflect contemplatively on the ways we and our world are caught up in sin, turn away in repent, and seek God’s mercy.
In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There he confronts the devil and resists three temptations. These three temptations aren’t just instructive for us personally, they also describe perennial temptations the church faces in relationship to society. They are: 1. Empire Economics; 2. Idolatrous Nationalism; and 3. Blasphemous Religion.
Lent is a season of the Christian calendar in which we are once again invited to be formed by the pattern of Jesus’s life. In this series we will not only explore the personal application of Lenten practice, but also the corporate application. A framing passage for this series is from Isaiah 58:
Shout it aloud, do not hold back.Raise your voice like a trumpet.Declare to my people their rebellionand to the descendants of Jacob their sins.For day after day they seek me out;they seem eager to know my ways,as if they were a nation that does what is rightand has not forsaken the commands of its God.They ask me for just decisionsand seem eager for God to come near them.‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,‘and you have not seen it?Why have we humbled ourselves,and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you pleaseand exploit all your workers.Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,and in striking each other with wicked fists.You cannot fast as you do todayand expect your voice to be heard on high.Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,only a day for people to humble themselves?Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reedand for lying in sackcloth and ashes?Is that what you call a fast,a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:to loose the chains of injusticeand untie the cords of the yoke,to set the oppressed freeand break every yoke?Is it not to share your food with the hungryand to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them,and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?Then your light will break forth like the dawn,and your healing will quickly appear;then your righteousness will go before you,and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,with the pointing finger and malicious talk,and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungryand satisfy the needs of the oppressed,then your light will rise in the darkness,and your night will become like the noonday.The Lord will guide you always;he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched landand will strengthen your frame.You will be like a well-watered garden,like a spring whose waters never fail.Your people will rebuild the ancient ruinsand will raise up the age-old foundations;you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
In this message, Pastor T. C. shares the ways he has had to rethink “heaven” and “hell,” particularly where traditional views have not lined up with what the Bible actually teaches.
“Church” might be the subject that evokes the most emotions for those “deconstructing/reconstructing.” Church is where the proverbial rubber meets the road when it comes to our faith. It’s also where flawed human beings steward the sacred mysteries of the faith. Church is the space where God’s Spirit inhabits our relationships in an unique way, and it’s also where we are most vulnerable to being deeply wounded. In this message, Pastor T. C. explores three shifts he’s underwent when it comes to “church.”
In this message, Pastor Osheta Moore guides us through aspects of the deconstruction journey she’s been on as it relates to her experience and beliefs about the Holy Spirit. In a similar way to how the prophet Elijah looked for God to show up in overt manifestations of power, but God showed up in a gentle whisper, Pastor Osheta has learned to recognize the work of the Spirit in the more subtle areas of spiritual formation and social-emotional health.
What is the Bible? How did we get it? How are we supposed to interpret it? How do we understand the Bible and its role in our spiritual formation?
In this sermon, Pastor Der Lor explores how we can discover the Jesus Way in our understanding of Scripture after deconstruction.
As we continue in our current teaching series, Emily Morrison delivers this sermon on Faith. In John chapter 6, the crowds that followed Jesus had many questions for him. In fact, Jesus’s disciples often doubted. Ultimately, Jesus didn’t explain the faith, he asked people to believe in him, to trust him. Emily shows us that questioning is the first phase, and its necessary. We should evaluate what we believe. But then comes the point of decision. Are we going to move forward trusting Jesus, in confidence based on our evaluation? But that’s not the end of the process. We also have to learn how to continue living with ambiguity. We will often reevaluate some things, and have to commit ourselves again. That’s how faith works.
Jesus compared his Way to a wise person building their home on a rock. However, there are many Christian belief systems and structures that have been built on top of the Jesus Way which should be rightfully deconstructed—they are foundations of sinking sand. Belief systems and structures that are built on fear, cultural assimilation, and relativism are sinking sand and should be deconstructed. But the Jesus Way is the Rock of which Jesus spoke. His Way is a way of love captured in what Scot McKnight calls “The Jesus Creed”:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,with all your mind, and with all your strength.”And “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.— Matthew 13.44–46 NIV
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. introduces the ReFind series by talking about “deconstruction,”—the journey of critically re-examining our beliefs. Deconstruction isn’t necessarily rejection; deconstruction can be a precursor to rejuvenation. We not only need to re-find our faith; we also need to have our faith refined. To do this, we will need non-judgmental friendships, community that does not shame or exclude, but invites dialogue and companionship. And in order to undergo deconstruction without shipwrecking faith, we need to shift from intellectual affirmation of a system of beliefs to putting into practice the teachings of Jesus: the Jesus Way.
During the season of Christmastide, we give each other gifts in celebration of the greatest gift ever given to the world: Jesus. The advent of Jesus into the world is the greatest demonstration of God’s grace. However, we often misunderstand God’s grace when we think of it as a ‘one-way, unilateral donation.’ As we see in Romans 15 and II Corinthians 8, the apostle Paul thought about grace very differently. For him, grace creates a new social bond and reality, making the giver and receiver relationally connected. Relational ‘debt’ language strikes Western ears as threatening, but for Paul this was an essential part of how God’s grace works. In this message, Pastor T. C. will draw from Paul’s teachings on grace and from contemporary scholars Jackson W. (Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes) and John Barclay (Paul and the Gift).
The theme of Advent week 3 in the Making Christmas Meaningful Again (Advent Conspiracy) series is Give More. This sermon is by Pastor Der Lor.
What does it look like to make Christmas meaningful again? How do we resist the powerful forces of consumerism and consumption?
In week two of Advent, Emily Morrison explores the theme of “Spend Less” with a sermon from I Timothy 6.
This Advent, Roots is joining with hundreds of other congregations in conspiring against consumerism in our Christmas celebrations. The first theme of Advent Conspiracy is “Worship Fully.” In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the way we are formed by embodied practices. The apostle Paul teaches us to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices” to have our “minds renewed.” Every day in a thousand subtle ways we are being formed into individualistic consumers. Corporations don’t aim their ads primarily at our minds, they seek to capture our hearts. To worship fully this Advent, let us participate in holistic worship practices that focus our hearts and minds on Jesus. To do this we need one another. To worship fully, let us worship Jesus holistically together.
In this sermon, Pastor Der teaches on Paul’s argument to the so-called ‘Weak’ and ‘Strong’ factions in the house churches of Rome about how both Jewish and Gentile disciples are justified by “faith” in the same way that Abraham was.
In Romans 1.18–32, Paul employs language that echoes common Jewish stereotypes of Gentiles as particularly depraved and deserving of God’s wrath. Examples of this rhetoric can be found in Wisdom of Solomon. But Paul uses this rhetoric not to reinforce division between the Jewish and Gentile disciples in Rome. No! Paul uses it as a rhetorical trap to expose prejudice and teach against judgment.
After having completed the 12-16 and 9-11 sections of Romans, we are leapfrogging over the 5-8 section to the 1-4 section, and returning to the foundation of the Christian faith: The Gospel. In Romans chapter 1, we discover that the Gospel Paul preached wasn’t the ‘Romans Road,’ but was instead about Jesus, not us; Good News, not good advice; and not merely about saving our souls, but about changing everything.
In this sermon, Emily Morrison breaks down one of the most confusing and misunderstood passages in all of the New Testament: Romans chapters 9-11. Paul is retelling the biblical narrative, reinterpreted in the light of who Jesus is and what he has done, for the sake of the unity of the church of Rome. The story of God’s redemptive purposes is surprisingly big enough to include both Israel and the Gentiles!
Romans chapter 9 has been misunderstood as a passage about individual election, predestination, and personal salvation. But Romans is not a book of abstract, systematic theology. Romans is a pastoral letter written to a church with factions along cultural and ethnic lines. Paul is writing to the so-called “Weak” and “Strong” to reframe the stories they’ve been living in. Privilege was an key part of what was driving these groups apart, dividing the Body of Christ.Today in the U.S., privilege also divides the Body of Christ. In a Post-Christendom society, many American Christians long to get back to the ‘good ol’ days’ when Christianity enjoyed pride of place in society. White Christians also struggle with understanding how their privilege operates and divides the church. Romans 9 is a challenge to our privilege that resonates for today.
Romans 13 is a famous text that has been used as a proof-text to justify state-sponsored violence for millennia. By reading Romans “backwards” (in light of the conflict between the factions in the house churches of Rome), we can more clearly see Paul’s purpose for writing this passage. Rather than sanctioning state-sponsored violence, Paul was transforming the zeal of the so-called “Weak” into love, honor, and hospitality. Paul was also reminding the disciples in Rome of Jesus’s teachings of enemy-love and love of neighbor.
These three words, Christoformity, Glory, and Hope, represent the basic arch of Paul’s theological conviction for a unified multiethnic family of Jesus followers. Through what Scott McKnight calls “Christoformity” or the process of becoming like Christ in self-sacrificing ways, the Weak and the Strong – Jews and Gentiles–bring Glory to God when they give up their privileges and preferences for unity with the other. And because of this newly unified family of Jews and Gentiles, God will be glorified and the nations will place their Hope in God.
In chapters 14 and 15, the apostle Paul/Saul directly addresses the conflict between factions in the house churches of Rome. Namely, he points out that there is division among them along cultural and ethnic lines after the Jewish disciples who were expelled from Rome begin returning only to find a gentile-dominated church that no longer feels like home. The factions, which Beverly Roberts Gaventa lovingly refers to as the “lettuce-eaters” and the “garbage-bellies,” are deriving their identities from sources other than being in Christ. So Paul calls them back to being part of an alternative home—the Household of Christ. Because the household to whom you belong will define your identity and your way of life. Being members of Christ’s household makes the two factions one family. A lot more hangs on whether these factions can love one another than whether or not there’s shrimp scampi for dinner!
In this message, Pastor Osheta continues our exploration of the house churches of Rome from Romans chapter 16 with a deeper dive into some important female leaders, three of whom are Phoebe, Priscilla, and Junia.
This is the first message in a new teaching series, exploring the letter to the church at Rome, written by the apostle Paul/Saul. In this message, Pastor T. C. introduces the series and explains why reading Romans “backwards” helps keep the theology of the letter in its social and ecclesial contexts, as well as making it more easily applicable in our contemporary contexts.
In this message Pastor T. C. connects the Sabbath to the themes of trusting God for Abundance and Resistance to the fear of Scarcity.
In this message Pastor Der continues in the theme of Divine Rest with a new look at the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10.
Jesus invites his followers into God’s rest through him. He is One who gives true rest. In this message, Pastor T. C. explores the connection between Sabbath and Jesus.
Roots is learning how to rest, allowing ourselves to be rejuvenated by God, and to enter into God’s rest. This message from pastors T. C. and Osheta is the kick-off of the Time to Be Human series.
When we’re going through seasons of despair or lament, it’s naturally difficult to see beyond to the other side. In this standalone sermon, Pastor Der shares some of his own difficult seasons in life and ministry and how God’s promises for future blessing can be the impetus that moves us forward.
What is “oneness in Christ” and what does it teach us about the relationship between men and women in the church? In this message, Pastor T. C. shares some of the story about how his view changed from “Complementarianism” to “Egalitarianism”.
“Friendship” is an often neglected aspect of God’s covenant with humans. What can we learn about friendship with one another from God’s friendship with us?
The relationship between Paul and Timothy teaches us about Christian mentoring. Paul recognizes the contribution Timothy’s mother and grandmother have made to his faith. Paul encourages Timothy to “stir up” the gift from God that is already within him. This is an important truth for us to internalize when we are tempted to impose our views on others.
Emily Morrison knows a thing or two about living in community. She has lived in shared spaces with other Christians in South Sudan, Louisiana, and now in Minnesota. In this message, she shares from the wisdom she’s gleaned from these experiences and from the example of the apostle Paul in I Thessalonians.
In Genesis 33, we read about the reconciliation of two brothers who became enemies. Esau and Jacob were twins who were very different. After Esau spurned his birthright giving it to Jacob for a meal, and Jacob cheated Esau out of their father’s blessing, Esau vowed to kill Jacob. But in Genesis 32 and 33, we see how the two were able to be reconciled.
This message is a particularly practical one, as Pastor T. C. zooms in on “How to Say I’m Sorry.” Drawing on principles from the biblical story, as well as insights from other sources, this message outlines several of the most important components of a proper, healing apology.
To kick off this new teaching series, Pastor T. C. lays a foundation for our approach to all our relationships. Rather than approaching them individualistically, a better approach is applying wisdom from the ‘Wisdom Tradition’ of Scripture and from modern systems thinking. Drawing from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, as well as from Generation to Generation by Edwin Friedman, Pastor T. C. gives reasons why complexity not simplicity is a defining feature of our relationships and several meaningful, real-world implications for this approach.
As we continue in our teaching series, “Love in Public,” guest preacher, Paul Hurckman, Executive Director of Venture delivers a sermon on “Global Justice.” Venture is a Christian ministry that seeks justice and makes disciples around the world.
This series on loving people in public brings up a controversial subject: Politics. In this message, Pastor T. C. teaches on the social vision of Jesus: the Kingdom of God, disabuses listeners of negative connotations associated with “politics,” and presents the politics of Jesus from the portrayal of his life in the Gospels.
Building upon Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil’s classic work, The Heart of Racial Justice, Der Lor preaches a challenging message on Racial Justice in our continuing teaching series: Love in Public.
Pastor Osheta Moore continues our teaching series, “Love in Public,” with a message reminding us to that to carry out our justice ministry in the way of Jesus, we must have a posture of humility. Building upon an important section of her book, Shalom Sistas, Osheta’s message is entitled, “Serve Before You Speak.”
“Purposefully seeking the renewal of our city,” Roots’ third mission priority, requires us to have a unified vision of justice. Justice, as we have learned from Dr. Cornel West, is “what love looks like in public.” So, this week, we are looking at the big picture of justice in the biblical narrative. Like the picture on the puzzle box, if we are to seek justice, we need to know what the end goal we’re working toward looks like. The Bible’s vision of ultimate justice can be encapsulated in a Hebrew word: Shalom. Often translated “peace,” shalom is a rich and expansive concept. It speaks of wholeness, harmony, flourishing—a society in which people are rightly-related to one another and to God. From the Genesis creation account, on through the vision of the Hebrew prophets (e.g. Isaiah and Jeremiah), to the messianic mission of Jesus (cf. Luke 4), and to the glimpse of God’s future for the world (cf. Rev. 21), we see that God’s vision of justice is shalom. This must also be our vision of justice as we purposefully seek the renewal of our city.
The name of the Love in Public series comes from a quote by Dr. Cornel West: “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” In the first message of the series, Pastor T. C. teaches on the “transitive property” of love. When we passionately love God, we develop love for those whom God loves. Therefore, worship cannot be divorced from justice. God is deeply concerned for the well-being of the most vulnerable members of society. This is what the Scriptures say consistently and fervently. If we say we love God but do not seek to love the people God loves in public (i.e. justice), then we are liars (cf. 1 John 4). God calls for God’s people to be a society of shalom, a new way of being human community together. This necessarily entails justice.
Osheta Moore wrapped up the Adore series on the corporate worship of the body of Christ with a message on Luke 7.36-50. In this story, Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee named Simon. While there, a woman who is rumored to live a sinful life lavished an expensive gift of perfume on Jesus’s feet and dries them her hair. When Simon and other guests are scandalized by this act, Jesus draws a contrast between the care and generosity she demonstrated with the lack of provisions and welcome Simon provided. Pastor Osheta uses this story to help us think about the relationship between Worship & Hospitality.
The embodied practices in which we participate are forming us, whether we realize it or not. What we do, does something to us. So what does the embodied practice of Communion do to us?
Worship is a space where God’s Spirit empowers people with gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. Among the worshipping body of Christ, there is formed an alternative society of shalom, a glimpse of the future in New Creation, a space of radical equality and unity with diversity. In this message, Pastor T. C. preaches from an embattled text with a major landmine in the center. But, in context, this Text displays a revolutionary rejection of the social status quo that ranked people based on a wicked value system.
As the kick-off of the Adore series, we explore Paul’s exhortation to the church in Rome (12.1-2), to present their bodies as a living sacrifice in order to have their minds renewed. For Paul worship is counter-formation. It is the antidote to the ways we’re being malformed by our everyday practices and rhythms. Christian worship is the intentional recalibration of our hearts, our loves, toward Christ and is also the engine of the church. Worship forms us into people on a mission, people who embody Christ’s love in the world.
Epiphany means “to make manifest.” This is a season in which the church celebrates the revelation of Jesus as Messiah and Lord of all people groups. In Matthew 2, this begins with the visitation of the Magi from the East. The journey of the Magi is an archetype of the journey of faith, which is in actuality a pilgrimage. This story invites to ask many important questions about our own journeys of faith, and how they can be for us a pilgrimage.
Far too often, the Christmas story is haunted by the lingering effects of our Sunday School, two-dimensional, “Flannel Graph” understanding of the story. We have sanitized and domesticated the story, stripping it of its politically-charged, scandalous, and awe-inspiring power. We have removed the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions, to safeguard the status quo. And we have disenchanted the story to appease our skeptical, modern minds.
In this message, Pastor T. C. invites us to journey beyond a “Flannel Graph Christmas,” with various artistic mediums as aides (e.g. visual art, music, and poetry) to refocus our imaginations, to help us peer into the mystery, and uncover its contemporary relevance.
We conclude our teaching series, “Advent in Narnia,” with a message by Pastor T. C. on Matthew 3.1-12. The Advent season is a time of preparation for Christmastide, when we celebrate the birth of Messiah Jesus, the King and Liberator. During Advent, we take sober inventory of our hearts and lives. John the Forerunner calls us to prepare the way of the Lord through repentance. How can repentance address the needs of a polarized society like the contemporary United States?
This week, Pastor T. C. kicked off the season of Advent and the “Advent in Narnia” teaching series with a message about Advent as a mystery we encounter with humility and wonder, like Lucy stumbling through the wardrobe. At times, we need a spiritual wake-up call, to recapture a sense of child-like faith. Yet, Narnia isn’t a perfect world. Like our world, Narnia is caught in the crossfire of a war. Advent reminds us that Christ is the rightful King of the world, yet we currently live in enemy-occupied territory. Advent is a time when we are called to contemplative practices so that our activism isn’t reactionary, but comes from a place rooted in Christ’s love.
In the concluding message of the Radicle series, we look at Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18, a passage about “spiritual warfare.” Spiritual warfare is a phrase that evokes a lot of different responses from people, depending on one’s experiences. Clearly, one message cannot address all the many aspects of this very complex subject. In this message, Pastor T. C. focuses on four common pitfalls to avoid, and how the church responds to the powers opposed to God by being an alternative community that embodies the beauty of the Gospel while revolting against the powers’ corrupting influence.
(Note: The audio for this sermon is not up to our typical standards. We apologize if it’s difficult to hear.)
In the second half of chapter 2, Paul teaches that the cross of Jesus does more than just reconcile people to God, it also reconciles people groups to one another. Namely, Jesus’s life of self-sacrificial love shows us the way to peace and tears down the divisions between people of different cultures. The Way of Jesus creates an entirely new kind of human community. But, multiethnic churches might fall into the trap of thinking “multiculturalism” is what this text prescribes. What if, instead of multiculturalism, this text prescribes cultural hybridity rooted in our shared identity in Jesus? What would the potential pitfalls be? What would be some concrete pathways to such cultural hybridity?
We bring all of our selves to everything we interpret, including assumptions we have based on the influence of the cultures around us. When we come to this week’s text, Ephesians 2.1-10, many of us have been influenced by Modern, Western culture, which has conditioned us to understand the concept of “faith” as opposed to “works”. This is because of the view developed since the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth-century. But, we want to understand faith in Christ as it was meant in its own context, and then apply that to our context today.
Today, many people are experiencing an identity crisis. Many of the labels and categories that have traditionally supported our identities no longer serve us well. People are searching for something solid, something real, something in which to be rooted.
Ephesians chapter one is all about identity “in the Messiah.” Paul uses that phrase eleven times in as many verses. But what does it mean?
It means being joined with God through baptism into the life of Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit. But it also means being joined to the diverse family of God. And it doesn’t mean the erasure of our particular and unique identities, our God-given and beautiful diversity.
In Acts 19, we read the account of Paul’s time in Ephesus establishing a church there. In three key passages in that chapter, we see three ways the Way of Jesus disturbs the status quo. In verses 8-10, we see that Paul’s radical Gospel of equality and unity among all ethnic groups led to the maligning of the Jesus Way. The Jesus Way disturbs our walls of hostility (Ephesians 2.14-16). Then, in verses 14-16, we see that the Jesus Way disturbs our desire to co-opt religious power. When we attempt to do good apart from a life-giving connection with God and others, we may find ourselves overcome by evil. Finally, in verses 23-34, we see that the Jesus Way disturbs our idolatries and the systems that support them.
In Acts 8, there are two main figures on which the narrative focuses: Simon, the Sorcerer, and Philip, the apostle. In these two we see contrasted two approaches to Christian faith. One views faith as a transaction, a quid-pro-quo. The other views faith as a movement of the Spirit as a witness to Jesus. Transactional faith is very common in Western forms of Christianity. In this message, Andrea Roles helps us to recognize the difference and to move toward God’s non-transactional Spirit.
Jesus instructed his Galilean disciples in Acts 1:8 to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. However, when the Twelve are slow to carry God’s mission beyond Jerusalem, God uses Hellenistic Jews Stephen and Philip (who were delegated for food distribution) to preach and evangelize in and outside of Jerusalem.
Today in the United States and in the American church, there are a lot of reasons for the church to speak truth to power like the apostles in Acts 5. This prophetic role is essential. We are allegiant to Jesus and his Way is our law, even if that sets us at odds with the laws of the nations in which we find ourselves.
Luke, however, masterfully juxtaposes the apostles prophetic stance with their solution-oriented administration of the cultural conflict and unjust distribution of resources in the fledgling church. Luke teaches us something important by telling these two stories back-to-back. The church is to be both prophet and wonk! In so doing, the church embodies the alternative it seeks to see characterize the broader society.
Terence Austria is a Chicago native who attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with the intention of continuing on to law school. Upon graduating in 1991, he decided instead to become a college pastor at UIUC, developing a campus ministry committed to prayer, discipleship, and outreach. In February 2016, he joined the staff of Salt & Light, a community development ministry committed to fighting poverty with dignity.
Osheta Moore is a writer and podcaster, mother and wife, and international speaker on subjects of peacemaking and racial righteousness. She is author of Shalom Sistas: Living Wholehearted in a Brokenhearted World (Harold Press, 2017) and her work has been featured in spaces such as Sojourners, SheLoves Magazine, A Deeper Story, The Art of Simple, ReKnew, and Rachel Held Evans’s blog. You can connect with her work at Osheta.com and ShalomSistas.com
Pentecost Sunday is an opportunity for Jesus-disciples to turn once again toward God and ask for God’s Spirit to fill us, empower us, and send us. In this message, Pastor T. C. will focus on the nature of the “power” Jesus-disciples receive from God, the receptive posture necessary, how to know we are being caught up in the Holy Spirit and not some other spirit, and the purpose of the Spirit’s empowerment: witness.
Der Lor has held ministry and worship leadership roles at two large churches in Wisconsin. As a pastor and theologian, Der loves learning about the contextual nature of theology and its implications for God’s ethnically diverse people. As a worship leader, Der loves ushering God’s diverse people together in Christ and pointing them back to their Creator as a new humanity. Der has spoken at conferences on topics relating to multi-ethnic ministry, musical worship, and racial/ethnic identity and Christian faith. Der is married to Alice. They have a daughter, Penny, with another baby on the way. Der holds a B.A. in Christian Ministry from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL and a M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.
In this message, he draws from Paul’s teaching on the Cross as ‘foolishness to the Greek’ and a ‘stumbling block to Jews’ in First Corinthians chapter 1, to engage in an exploration of marginality and liminality for people of minority ethnic groups in the United States.
God’s redemptive mission began in earnest through the covenant cut with Abraham and his family who will become Israel. God was restoring the blessing and calling given to humanity in the beginning. God was restoring the shalom, the right-relatedness between God and humanity and between peoples. Right-relatedness was restored between Abraham and God through Abraham’s faith, trust, and allegiance. All this preceded the giving of Torah.
By the time Jesus enters the story of God’s redemptive mission, Torah-observance marks off the people who are rightly-related to God. Even an apostle like Peter believes Gentiles are unclean and categorically ‘sinners.’ Until God reveals to Peter that Gentiles are being redeemed through faith, trust, and allegiance just like Abraham.
However, the cultural waters Peter was swimming in were deep. In Antioch he withdrew from table-fellowship with Gentiles out of fear of criticism from those whom Paul called “agitators.” Paul opposed Peter adamantly, because Peter’s withdrawal from the Gentiles was a rejection of the Gospel and a division of the body of Christ.
Today, cultural waters also threaten the unity of the body of Christ. Today, the body of Christ is also divided.
In this message, Pastor T. C. will draw from the story and scholarship of Dr. Richard Twiss as a wise guide on a journey for the church in North America.
The fourth sermon in the “Swimming Lessons” teaching series entitled “The Rise of Babylon,” this message presents an interpretation of the “Tower of Babel” story in Genesis chapter 11 as the genesis of empire and cultural captivity. This message challenges viewers to examine the ways we capitulate or participate in cultural captivity.
How many times have you heard that Pentecost “reversed the curse” of Babel?
Did you know that the word “curse” never appears in the story?
What if diversity of languages isn’t a curse, but a blessing?
What if God’s intervention wasn’t punishment, but liberation?
The third message in the “Swimming Lessons” series builds upon the previous two, by continuing to chart the descent of human culture into greater and greater brokenness. In this message, Pastor T. C. shows how human culture disintegrated from the original “Garden Culture” to Cain killing his brother Abel. But, the shattering of shalom isn’t confined to individuals. After God marks Cain for his own protection, the story says Cain built a city. Our judgment of and violence toward one another is externalized into social systems which take on a life of their own. Social systems then internalize values into those who participate in the system.
The church is the externalization of the Holy Spirit among Jesus’s disciples. Rather than living into the “City of Cain,” we are called to live into the New Jerusalem even now, as a foretaste of the Age to Come.
“Swimming Lessons: A Deep Dive into Culture” is a teaching series exploring the ways we are influenced and formed by the many different cultures we inhabit. Like water to a fish, we can easily be oblivious to the ways the cultures to which we are accustomed. This series is an exploration of the waters we swim in, and instruction from the Scriptures and teachings of Jesus on how to navigate them.
In this message, Pastor T. C. picks up the on the story of the Bible in chapter 2 of Genesis, recaps last week’s message on “Garden Culture,” and begins to teach on the way culture gets corrupted and becomes a corrupting influence on us, in a message entitled “Judgment Culture.” Check it out!
This message kicks off a new teaching series exploring the ways we are formed and malformed by culture. In this first message, Pastor T. C. lays a foundation for the series by starting where the biblical story starts: in Genesis chapter 1. In the story of Genesis 1 and 2, God creates humanity in God’s “image.” This “image of God” (Latin: imago Dei) is less about attributes humanity possesses and more about a calling with which humanity is blessed. God blesses humanity by calling them to be divine representatives on earth, royal stewards of the creation. Humanity is called to co-create culture with God—to reflect into the creation the loving reign of God, and to gather up the praises of creation and express them to the Creator.
This imago Dei calling with which humanity is blessed also a reflection of the nature of God. God is a loving community of persons, unity with diversity. In the same way, God created humanity male and female to reflect God’s unity with diversity. The creation also reflects the unity with diversity of the Creator. Humanity is called to celebrate the unity with diversity of the creation, including the partnership (not patriarchal domination) of men and women.
Finally, this imago Dei calling with which humanity is blessed is a mandate to cultivate the flourishing of creation (shalom). The Garden is a glimpse of God’s intent for the world. God intends there to be wholeness, fruitfulness, harmony, and justice. God intends people to be rightly related to God, to one another, to themselves, and to the rest of creation.
All of this forms the foundation of a biblical understanding of how God intends culture to work in and through our lives.